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Author Archives: elaine sam

I found this article very interesting regarding the emotional aspect of education among Aboriginal students. Kana‘iaupuni, S., Ledward, B., Jensen, U., (2010) explains “[f]irst, culture-based education (CBE) positively impacts student socio-emotional well-being.” Which is will be part of my research regarding the emotional impact education has among Indigeous people. As well, the study indicated that students using their method “are more likely to have strong community ties as exemplified by working to protect the local environment and attending public meetings about community affairs.” In order for me to attempt to tie together the social aspect (i.e. social media) and the emotional aspect among First Nations, its important to find more studies that are relevant.

It has been difficult for me to try find more recent data since this study was conducted in 2010. The concerns I am having is the rate of evolution for technology. It is a great thing that every 6 months, we are having a new idea or a new piece of technology to assist educators. But at that rate, how can anyone have a full understanding of the effects or defects of that medium.

I found this website helpful for me to attempt to categorize the type of emotions students have. Pekun, R, (2009) noted that there are “[t]wo distinct ways of describing emotions are provided by categorical and dimensional approaches.” His definitions are very similar to that of Dr. Brown from our readings.

Pekun, R. states that “categorical approaches, qualitatively different types of discrete emotions are differentiated, such as enjoyment, anger, anxiety, or boredom.” Where as, “the dimensional approach, a small number of dimensions are held to be sufficient to describe human emotion.” He identifies those dimensional valance and activation. Despite the lack of relationship for Indigenous people, I think that if we understand emotion not only for Aboriginal children, but all children in the educational world. This website explains that emotion, when positive, will provide a positive outcome regarding the educators approach. Considering how generic that ideology is, it would be extremely difficult for any educator to always be positive when the students understanding of positive would differ. For example, as in Dr. Brow explanation, reprimanding aboriginal children for sharing their knowledge during a test would go against the cultural training that it takes a community to answer. However, this article does help supplement that emotion is a big factor for children and students. How would I apply that? How does that affect the socio-emotional being of indigenous children?

http://www.education.com/reference/article/student-emotions/#B

One point that I thought was relevant was the article “The Emotional Toll of Social Media.” This article does take a more negative note of the impact social media has on society. The author (n.d.) states “[m]any social media users say that they feel a sense of inadequacy because they subconsciously compare themselves to the people that show up in their streams.” What I question with the author is their statement that “most people do not put up the good and bad on their social media outlets. Therefore, these outlets are portraying an idealistic image that doesn’t really exist.” I wanted to address people like the first Native America beauty model. The better aspect of her social media attention is that she is the First native woman to become Mrs. Universe. She can help other young native women aspire to become more in themselves. The negative aspect, (as noted by the article) is that it could create an unrealistic view of what a Native woman should look like. Many of my fellow students understand there are many variations of indigenous people. Some wear beaded garments, others use Deer skin, hair hats, straw-hats, sheep wool, and many other variations. So, would we be forcing a single ideal of a native culture onto the majority indigenous population with the help of social media? More questions, I’m hoping to address.

This last article goes into the type of negative and positive impact social media has on users. Schacter, H., (2015) explains “social media use can be particularly maladaptive when it occurs in the form of passive browsing.” Social anxiety is bred on social media because of feeling left out or excluded. I believe that point is important for Indigenous people that are now using social media to announce cultural events. There must be some type of emotional concern when one family member is excluded from an e-vite, or not tagged for the event. This article does replicate a bit of the previous website, but it is a little more technical and giving me more opportunities to dig further since she has references to studies. This is what caught my attention when I read her findings (2015):

“considered the role of technology-based “social comparison and feedback-seeking” (SCFS) in the development of depressive symptoms. They found that adolescents (8th and 9th graders) who reported engaging in more social comparison and feedback-seeking behavior online (e.g., “I use electronic interaction to see what others think about how I look”; “I use electronic interaction to compare my life with other people’s lives”) experienced more depressive symptoms a year later, even when accounting for earlier levels of depression as well as concurrent technology use.”

If I apply that specifically to Indigenous people, I would think this would drastically change (or alter) the view of technology and education that uses technology as a medium.

Ultimately, I’m hoping to connect emotional well being being impacted by social media. Which would (or could) affect educators that intend to use technology as a medium.

I find it difficult to find recent information regarding a more positive outlook at Natives. I enjoy reading this Native Youth Magazine because it brings light to popular people that have Native American descent. Shows various links to their social medias and I find useful in gaining some idea of how far the social media is impacting the native youth community.

http://nativeyouthmagazine.com/

The concerns of native education is spreading. What I enjoyed is the contributions and community with the US president Obama. In this report, it shows some root causes of the educational crisis among First Nation students. 2014 Youth Native Report explains that “[e]xperience suggests that incorporating Native languages and culture into academic settings can improve educational engagement and outcomes.” This report for a US government associated document is important because that recognition is important. As educators for present and future, we need to see what the possible causes of educational disparities so that we can overcome them. The next step is knowing the means of overcoming those issues. The report gives a lot of statistics, root causes, and possible solutions.

This online book is an excellent source of explaining and understanding the impact of social media on behaviour. Which is key to my research in understanding the complex relationship between social media, emotion, and education. I’m still in the process of reading it. However, Meyrowitz, J. (1985) explains “the primary characteristic of any medium is its ability to impring on our senses and connect with our processes of though and expression.” Despite the age of the book, I find it relevant for our modern concerns.

This article is relevant to my research because it is discussing the attachment of emotion to educational environments. Pekrun, R. (2009) explains “[d]ue to the interactive nature of classroom settings, social emotions such as admiration, contempt, or envy can also play a major role in these settings.” So, if I consider the relationship of new technology age of classrooms being online, through some technology medium, and the nature of a classroom, it could create an emotion. What is that emotion? Is it positive? and my concern is, how could we incorporate any Indigeous culture into it? (if possible) This article caused me to ponder what possibilities there are to this situation.

http://www.education.com/reference/article/student-emotions/

I loved the fact this article is very recent. It is discussing the emotional relevance to education. The article explains “[t]he emotional brain, the limbic system, has the power to open or close access to learning, memory, and the ability to make novel connections.” This can be related to native culture or lack of culture within the educational system. How can this effect the students? Would the suggestions within this article provide the environment for native students?

One of my concerns for my research assignment is emotion. Coming from a scientific background and being in the industry of metrology, measuring is important to understanding. For example, how does a person know how far they will have to travel if there was no measurement of distance? This same thought process is occurring when I am attempting to associate emotion among First Nation people. One website noted some valuable information to help me better understand the direction I am wanting to take my research assignment to.

http://www.tier360.com/creativecms/pages/can-emosions-measured

There is huge economical value in the measurement of emotion in the business industry. It made me consider how indigenous people would recognize and become emotionally concerned with symbols. Example is the Thunderbird and the Whale. From one tribe to another, they could mean different things.

Another note relating to Module 2 is the aspect of how media can affect the self-recognition. I noted in the social media that the actor Adam Sandler had some dispute with fellow Native actors. It appears that Adam did not intend to upset his fellow Native actors by the script. My question is, why did it affect those actors enough for them to walk off the stage during mid-production?

Our class module did note that emotion could be considered to be deeply embedded into Aboriginal culture, so how can we associate that emotional aftermath from the actor and the script that was meant to be humorous. There a few releases from Adam noting that “the movie has ridiculous in the title for a reason: because it is ridiculous. It is a broad satire of Western movies and the stereotypes they popularized, featuring a diverse cast that is not only part of — but in on — the joke.” So is it ok since he makes fun of other cultures and beliefs? How does this satire affect the view of each culture represented?

Another notice during my research is the suicide rates among first nation people. Could this be related to emotion or lack of understanding on emotion. The Globe and Mail had an article indicating that suicide is a deep concern. There is a sense of hopelessness, which struck me after watching the video for our module. So, after reading that article my question is how can we view hope then? I agree that hope is not an action plan, but what does it provide for people and more specifically, for First Nation people. Is the term hope part of the culture of First Nations in British Columbia? Now going from different sources, I am noticing a variation of statistics. My concern at that point is how do we determine which information is correct? If we are putting the community on a state of emergency, what is the guidelines to initate? Is it when 1 in 10 people are attempting suicide? If the preventative methods are not effective, according to who?

Angela Wilson is forcing readers to question the authenticity and the source of our writings. I like this resource since it is ensuring that as I write my research assignment, that I want to consider the source of information that I will be obtaining it from. All of our discussion posts are asking critical questions that cause the audience to bring about their own interpretation of the information read. What drives our interpretation? As Dr. Brown noted, that any of our thoughts are started by an emotion, we feel something before we think something. Emotion takes precedent to our thoughts and actions.

What is the purpose of aboriginal education and technology? As all of us are researching and find documentation to support any ideas or theories that we are bringing forward, it is quite difficult filtering based on our needs due to the broad nature of our topic.

The following link is in UBC library about Bretts’ dissertation regarding his recommendations of Cowichan education. Cowichan tribes has over 4,800 registered members as is one of the largest sing First Nation Band in British Columbia. From Bretts statistics, 16,000 young people drop out of highschool yearly in B.C. He is using a lot of various resources and statistics to help gain some understanding of what the need is for education among the Cowichan people in School District 79. I found it very interesting as it brings some recommendations for education and possible use of technology.

This article online discusses some of the problems that Natives face living on the reservation. The article discusses Mike McKenzie and essentially colonialism. Statistics are provided to supplement some of the major issues around reservations. It touches a little around the educational aspects and the presented (or rejected) solutions to bringing education in reservations. I’m sure many British Columbia teachers and educators could agree with some of the financial issues surrounding educational funding. It may not be a direct impact to technology or the influence technology has upon First nations, but it would bring a necessity to having a new form of cheaper education that could prove successful with limited resources.